U.S., Canada to Ban Saccharin, Cite Lab Test Links to Cancer

[TEXT OMITTED FROM SOURCE] Academy of Sciences reported in 1975 that it had been unable to determine whether sacharin caused cancer in test animals.

Last October, the General Accounting Office urged the FDA to resolve sugar substitute.

Thomas A. Craig of Abbott Laboratories in Chicago, the manufacturer of Sycaryl, an artificial sweetener entirely composed of saccharin, said, "This action would appear ot be based on a study in Canada in which rats were fed extremely large doses of saccharin.

"Preliminary reports indicate a few of the animals getting highest doses developed bladder tumors. We haven't seen data from study yet, but the preliminary report seems to be at variance with other data on saccharin. There have been a number of other well-controlled studies in various laboratories which have shown no harmful effects from saccharin used in equally high dosages."

Marvin E. ELsenstadt, executive vice president of Sweet 'N Low, the largest saccharin manufacturer in the United States, said, "Any call for a ban of saccharin is an outrageous and harmful action based on firmly scientific evidence that has absolutely no bearing on human health. It is an action that provides no public benefit, and indeed, could cause great harm to the millions of Americans who need an artificial sweetener for medical reasons and as an aid in weight control."

(Meanwhile in Ottawa, Washington Post special correspondent Michael Lavoie reported that Canadian health authorities based their action on a three-year study in which male rats, fed large quantities of saccharin, developed both noncancerous and cancerous bladder tumors. In a second generation of rats, malees whose mothers received saccharin during pregnancy developed bladder tumors, most of which were malignant.

(The health officials said the experimental doses exceeded average human exposure by at least 800 times and that no cases of human cancer attributable to saccharin have been identified, Lavoie reported.

[The Canadian Health Department said that use of saccharin will be phased out in the following way].